Bridgewater State College holds winter graduation

Saturday

About 600 graduates were honored at Bridgewater State College’s 24th winter commencement on Friday.

“Warriors” is what student speaker Greg Reynolds called the nearly 325 Bridgewater State College graduates attending Friday night’s commencement ceremony for their perseverance and spirit.

About 600 graduates were honored in the college’s 24th winter commencement on Friday, although only about half typically participate in the ceremony to receive their diplomas.

Reynolds, of Dighton, spoke about his deployment to Iraq and life-threatening motorcycle accident as near insurmountable obstacles to his education, but triumph was his message.

“In three seconds I went from being in control of my life to fighting for my life ... from being on the dean’s list to being on my deathbed,” said Reynolds. “When my mom got to the hospital, she was told to gather my family since I was given an 18 percent chance for survival and even less than that for recovery.

“Not only was I in a coma for six weeks, I suffered a traumatic brain injury, several broken bones in my neck and a fore-quarter amputation.

“Most people go to college in September and graduate in May, four or five years later, but not us. We are here in January. We are here in January because our road was different.”

“I bet every one of you graduating tonight had some obstacle placed in your way but you persevered to get here. Whether you know it or not we are warriors.

“It could have been the fact that you had to work and come to school part-time or maybe there was a death in the family and you missed a semester, perhaps an injury or illness. There are a multitude of reasons and things. However, in each of our lives, whatever it was, it was huge to us.”

For Heather Salvucci of Plymouth, the past year was truly a race for her degree. She completed 37 credits in the past 12 months.

“I took two years off for personal reasons,” said Salvucci, “so graduating is a huge achievement for me.”

Salvucci said her future plans include graduate school for her master of arts in teaching degree at UMass-Dartmouth.

State Rep. Peter Koutoujian was the commencement speaker at the Rondileau Campus Center auditorium. Koutoujian, 48, represents the 10th Middlesex District in the state Legislature and has spent more than a decade on Beacon Hill. The lifelong Waltham resident has held several leadership positions in the House of Representatives and is currently the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Financial Services.

“I intend on becoming a phys ed teacher on the South Shore,” said Joseph Arruda of Middleboro.

Political science classmate Andrew Fleischer said his future plans were to continue working for the mayor’s office in his hometown of Brockton.

Masters degree plans were a frequent theme at the Bridgewater State College graduation, echoed by Brighid Callahan of Lakeville.

“I plan on going for a masters in public policy,” said Callahan. “The political science department here was great.”

“I’m really happy to be graduating,” said Laura Perry of Middleboro. “I want to pursue working in an art history museum so I want to go back for my master’s.”